Cross slide gesture

ABSTRACT

Techniques relating to scrolling, object selection, and object moving are discussed. Strokes are inputted by a user, for instance using a touch sensitive surface. Strokes are directed to a scrollable surface with objects therein. Strokes that end before meeting a condition select the objects, and strokes then end after meeting the condition move the objects or representations thereof. The condition may be a distance. Selection may only occur when strokes meet a threshold condition such as having a particular direction (e.g., perpendicular to a direction for scrolling the surface) or moving a minimal distance. Strokes in a scrolling direction (e.g., horizontal) may scroll the surface in that direction and strokes in another direction (e.g., vertical) may both select and move the objects. Objects selected may slide on rails before moving.

BACKGROUND

In the field of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), many techniques have been used to scroll or pan items displayed on a display. In addition, it is often convenient to allow a user to move the items and to select items as targets of operations such as deletion, activation, and so forth. For example, many GUI environments include a launch interface or graphical desktop with icons or tiles that can be scrolled together, activated, and rearranged. Typically a different type of input gesture is used for each of these types of interactions with a scrollable surface and its items. That is, there may be different input gestures to scroll, select, and rearrange, respectively. Opportunities to streamline these types of interactions have not previously been appreciated. Increasing use of different types of input devices, in particular touch sensitive displays (displays that also function as two-dimensional digitizers), have introduced opportunities to improve the intuitiveness and usability of scrollable sets of items.

Techniques related to efficiently selecting and rearranging items in a scrollable collection are discussed below.

SUMMARY

The following summary is included only to introduce some concepts discussed in the Detailed Description below. This summary is not comprehensive and is not intended to delineate the scope of the claimed subject matter, which is set forth by the claims presented at the end.

Techniques relating to scrolling, object selection, and object moving are discussed. Strokes are inputted by a user, for instance using a touch sensitive surface. Strokes are directed to a scrollable surface with objects therein. Strokes that end before meeting a condition select the objects, and strokes then end after meeting the condition move the objects or representations thereof. The condition may be a distance, although other conditions may be used such as velocity, contact geometry, deltas over time, etc. Selection may only occur when strokes meet a threshold condition such as having a particular direction (e.g., perpendicular to a direction for scrolling the surface) or moving a minimal distance. Strokes in a scrolling direction (e.g., horizontal) may scroll the surface in that direction and strokes in another direction (e.g., vertical) may both select and move the objects. Objects selected may slide on rails before moving.

Many of the attendant features will be explained below with reference to the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present description will be better understood from the following detailed description read in light of the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to designate like parts in the accompanying description.

FIG. 1 shows a panning user interface.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a move operation.

FIG. 3 shows a single-stroke multi-gesture approach to selecting and moving items.

FIG. 4 shows a process using the gesture approach of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows how strokes in different directions can map to different gestures or commands.

FIG. 6 shows additional detail of how a meandering stroke can select or move the target item.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment that uses a speed bump to slow the speed of dragging the target item or its representation.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment where a stroke selects a target item but the target item does not slide.

FIG. 9 shows a computing device for implementing embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments discussed below relate to allowing a stroke input to either select or move an item displayed in a scrollable surface. Details of scrollable surfaces will be described first. Discussion will then turn to how a progressing stroke's traits can be dynamically monitored to map the stroke, at different stages, to different operations (e.g., selection, movement) will be described next.

FIG. 1 shows a panning user interface. As shown in Frame A, the user interface has a view area 100, and a surface 102 containing items 104. The surface 102 has edges—edge1 106 and edge2 108. The surface 102 may be larger than the view area 100, and a user may pan or scroll the surface 102 to see different of the items 104. Panning may involve displaying a smooth or continuous movement of the surface 102 through the view area 100. There are numerous ways that a user can initiate, control, and terminate a pan of the surface 102. Consider the following examples. A user may drag the surface 102 with a stroke inputted with an input device. The input device might be a mouse, a two-dimensional gesture detection system (e.g., a touch surface), a three-dimensional gesture detection system (e.g., Kinect™, by Microsoft Corp.), a digital pen, or others. Termination of the stroke may cause the surface 102 to glide with inertia to a stop, stop abruptly, or “bounce”. A user may continuously activate/deactivate a pan by holding/releasing a physical button, maintaining/ceasing a touch gesture, activating/deactivating a user-interface button, holding/changing a 3D gesture, and so forth. For purposes of discussion herein, a stroke will be considered to be an input that is generated by user-controlled movement. A stroke input may be derived, for example, from a finger or stylus moving on a contact or pressure sensing surface, a mouse moving, a physical object or body part being recognized by a camera, a joystick, or any other system that allows a user to control locations of arbitrary input points or lines in two or three dimensions. A sequence of such input points may be interpolated as a line or may be grouped as a unit based on heuristics such as closeness in time and/or location, etc.

The panning action of the surface 102 may appear to be smooth or continuous (with perhaps some minimal movement delta). The panning action may also vary at the end of a pan. For example, when a pan is ending, the surface 102 may automatically snap to a nearest point such as a marker, a page division, a content feature, etc. Or, the surface 102 may stop abruptly, “bounce” slightly, or gradually glide to a rest. In some cases, the surface 102 may be panned to any arbitrary point of content 104, while in other cases panning stop points may be restricted. In some embodiments, panning may vary in speed according to user input, according to content features or markers that are panned into view, etc.

While examples described herein may show rectangular windows and view areas with rectangular panning surfaces panning from left to right, embodiments described herein may be implemented with different window and surface shapes and with different panning directions. For example, the concepts and embodiments described herein may be used when panning or scrolling horizontally, or even when a surface is larger in all directions than the view area and the surface can be panned in arbitrary directions. In addition, any mention of a window or viewing area may refer to a formally defined sub-region of a display as well as an entire area of a display.

Returning to FIG. 1, a default panning behavior will be described. In frame A of FIG. 1, a user is able to pan the surface 102 in either a first direction (a direction from edge1 106 to edge2 108), or in a second direction (a direction from edge2 108 to edge1 106). When there is user input such as a horizontal stroke that indicates a pan in the second direction, as shown in Frame B, edge2 108 moves toward the view area 100. When edge2 108 reaches (is near, touches, or enters) the view area 100, the default pan behavior is to automatically stop the panning. Frame C shows the position of the surface after panning in the first direction. When a user provides input to pan in the second direction the surface 102 similarly moves to and stops at the view area 100.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a move operation. At Frame A a target item 104A is selected, for example by a user's stroke, click, or other input. Once selected, as shown at Frame B, the target item 104A is moved by the user relative to the view area 100. In one embodiment, the relative movement may be accomplished by selecting the target item 104A and then scrolling the surface 102 while the target item 104A remains in place relative to the view area 100. At Frame C a user input ends the moving of the target item 104A, and at Frame D the items 104 are rearranged to accommodate the placement of the target item 104A at the slot or position designated by the user. While FIG. 2 shows a tile or icon displayed as moving, a move operation can also be performed with other techniques such as displaying a ghost image of the target item 104A, a cursor, or any other kind of graphic representation. In one embodiment, the surface 102 has defined slots or positions to which items 104 are automatically placed. That is, the surface 102 may have predefined locations (one or two dimensions), coordinates (e.g., rank or order), or regions (e.g., boxes of a grid) to items 104 are constrained. Addition, movement, or deletion of an item 104 may cause items in nearby slots or positions to shift.

Embodiments may vary with regard to subtleties of what is displayed and when. For example, after a cross-slide gesture (a stroke in the select/move direction or against the panning direction) has started, the target item can be immediately popped out of its collection on the surface and the other items are rearranged to close the space the target item formerly occupied. The item is allowed to move freely in two dimensions within the parent container; as it does so, other items may be rearranged around it as it moves.

FIG. 3 shows a single-stroke multi-gesture approach to selecting and moving items 104. Initially, a stroke 120 is detected, for example by an application, an operating system, or combination thereof. The target item 104A is identified as a target of the stroke 120 (i.e., is associated with the stroke 120). While the stroke 120 is shown as occurring on the target item 104A (e.g., a touch on a physical surface or a drag of a GUI pointer), the stroke 120 can be associated with the target item 104A in any way, such as by determining that the target item 104A is the closest item 104 to the stroke 120, determining that the stroke is within a given range of the target item 104A, determining that the stroke 120 originated within a boundary associated with the target item 104A, or any other basis for associating an input with an item 104.

When the stroke 120 has reached a threshold selection distance 122 then the target item 104A is deemed to be selected. The term “distance” may refer, for example, to straight-line distance between the beginning and end points of the stroke 120, displacement in a given direction such as vertical or horizontal (e.g., the “x” or “y” magnitude of the stroke 120, path length of the stroke (e.g., cumulative distances between points of the stroke 120), or others. In one embodiment, after the threshold selection distance 122 the target item 104A, or a representative graphic (shadow, cursor, marker, etc.) may move linearly according to the continuing movement of the stroke 120. In another embodiment the stroke 120 merely continues without display of a movement indicator (in yet another embodiment, the target item 104A also slides prior to satisfaction of the selection distance 122 and slides back to its original position of the stroke 120 fails to satisfy the selection distance 122 when it terminates). If the stroke ends between the threshold selection distance 122 and a movement threshold distance 124, then the target item 104A is selected and not moved. The selection may be indicated by graphically distinguishing target item 104A, such as by changing the graphic content of target item 104A (e.g., addition of an “x” or checkmark), by recoloring, flashing, or graying target item 104A, enhancing or adding a border, altering or adding a graphic outside the surface, etc.

If the stroke 120 reaches the movement threshold distance 124 then free-form movement of the target item 104A (or a graphic representation thereof), per movement of the stroke 120, may begin (e.g., the stroke 120 drags the target item 104A or its representation). A release threshold distance 126 may be used. If the stroke 120 ends past the release threshold distance 126 then the target item 104A will be moved according to the location of the end of the stroke 120. If the stroke 120 ends before the release threshold distance 126 then a move of the target item 104A does not occur, which might be indicated by displaying the target item 104A at its original position (or possibly a slightly altered position to indicate that it has been selected), by undisplaying a representation of the target item 104A, etc. When a move of the target item 104A occurs the target item 104A might be relocated to another position or slot in its containing surface. The target item 104A may similarly be copied. Other items 104 might be rearranged to accommodate placement of the target item 104A at a new location or slot. The move may instead cause the target item 104A to be moved or copied out of its containing surface, for instance to another GUI element. The move may alternatively cause the target item 104A to be added or moved to a folder type of item 104.

FIG. 4 shows a process using the gesture approach of FIG. 3. At step 140 the stroke 120 begins and it is determined that the stroke 120 is associated with the target item 104A. The process enters a monitoring loop 141 that monitors the stroke 120 to determine which gestures it maps to or which operations it is invoking. At step 142 updates of the stroke 120 are received (e.g., a new contact point or set of points). At step 144 it is determined if the stroke 120 has terminated (e.g., an “up” event), and if so appropriate action is taken, which is described below. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step 146 where it is determined if the stroke has moved or reached the selection threshold distance 122. If the selection threshold distance 122 has not been reached then the loop continues to await a next update of the stroke 120. If the selection threshold distance 122 has been reached then at step 148 the target item 104A is designated as selected or given a state of selected (optionally the target item 104A or its representation may move “on rails” at this stage). At step 150 it is determined if the movement threshold distance 124 has been reached. If it has then at step 152 the target item 104A (or a representation thereof) moves freely in accordance with the stroke 120 (e.g., movement according to movement of a most recent point of the stroke 120). In one embodiment, at step 144, the release threshold distance 126 may be used to determine whether the target item 104A has been moved or whether it instead has only been selected.

FIG. 5 shows how strokes 170, 172, 174, 176 in different directions can map to different gestures or commands for a scrollable surface. Although not shown in FIG. 4, the process thereof may also involve a differentiation between strokes that move substantially in a first direction (e.g., up and down) and strokes that move substantially in a second direction (e.g., left and right). Strokes such as the horizontal strokes 174, 176 in the first direction may be mapped to a scrolling gesture, and strokes such as vertical strokes 170, 172 may be mapped to select/move gestures. In one embodiment, the first and second directions may be substantially perpendicular. For instance, strokes 170, 172 within 45 degrees of vertical are treated as select/move gestures and strokes, and strokes 174, 176 within 45 degrees of horizontal are treated as scrolling gestures that scroll the surface 102. Note that the first and second direction need not be perpendicular, and tolerances other that 45 degrees may be used.

To summarize, an arbitrary stroke is evaluated as it progresses, for instance by a gesture recognition engine. According to the direction of the stroke (e.g., average or interpolated direction, direction near leading point of stroke, vector from start point to most recent point, etc.), the stroke either scrolls or pans the surface 102, or the stroke is evaluated as a potential select or move gesture, as for example in FIG. 4. At one stage the stroke may map to selection gesture, and at another stage the same continuing stroke may map to a movement gesture to allow a movement of a target item. To help identify types of gestures, an initial part of a stroke may be analyzed quickly to determine a direction of the stroke, and then that direction is used to choose either to pan the surface or to select/move a target item.

FIG. 5 shows strokes 170, 172 substantially in one direction that scroll or pan the surface 102 and strokes 174, 176 substantially in another direction that select or move the target item 104A. That is, a process similar to that of FIG. 4 is used, but there is also a step of determining a direction of a stroke relative to the surface 102. If a stroke moves substantially in a first direction (e.g., left or right), then the surface is panned or slid or scrolled by the stroke. If the stroke moves substantially in a second direction (e.g., up or down) then the stroke selects or moves a target item. Note that the directions can have any arbitrary orientation relative to the surface 102.

FIG. 6 shows additional detail of how a meandering stroke 190 can select or move the target item 104A. It is assumed that the direction of the stroke 190 has already been analyzed and the stroke 190 is not a scroll gesture. At Frame A the stroke 190 is evaluated against a threshold directional distance 192. As the stroke 190 passes the threshold directional distance 192 the target item 104A is selected and optionally begins to slide in the select/move direction associated with select/move gestures (e.g., vertical). As shown in Frame B, the stroke 190 has a portion 190A that extends beyond the threshold directional distance 192 and that has a distance 194 moved in the select/move direction; the target item 104A (or its representation) may slide the distance 194. Frame C corresponds to when the stroke 190 ends before the stroke 190 moves a distance (in the select/move direction) that is less than a repositioning threshold distance 196. Frame D corresponds to when the stroke 190 moves a distance (in the select/move direction) that is more than the repositioning threshold distance 196. In Frame D the target item 104A or its representation is removed from the “rails” and begins to move freely according to the continuing progress of the stroke 190 (see second portion 1908 of the stroke 190).

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment that uses a speed bump to slow the speed of dragging the target item 104A or its representation. A speed bump is a region where, relative to a rate of movement of the controlling stroke, the rate of movement of the sliding target item 104A or its representation decreases, for instance from a ratio of 1-to-1 to a ratio of 3-to-1 (3 pixels of stroke move the target item 104A or its representation 1 pixel). Such a speed bump 200 may be implemented at or somewhere near the selection threshold distance 124 to provide the user with some feedback that the item is about to transition from selection to movement, and possibly also to provide some delineation between selection mode and movement mode; a user wishing to only select an item will be less likely to drag the item too far and begin moving the item.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment where a stroke 220 selects the target item 104A but the target item 104A does not slide between selection and free movement. At Frame A the stroke 220 starts but has not satisfied a selection condition (e.g., distance moved in select direction. At Frame B the stroke 220 has been determined to satisfy the selection condition and the target item 104A is selected and enhanced to indicate its selection (e.g., by shading, enhanced border of the target item 104A, an animation, addition of a graphic mark, etc.). At Frame C the stroke 220 continues and at Frame D, when the stroke satisfies a move condition (e.g., sufficient distance or possibly a change in direction), a graphic such as a cursor 222 or the target item 104A moves according to the stroke 220. In one embodiment, in particular in the case of a list of items 104 as shown in FIG. 8, the movement of the stroke only moves the graphic in a constrained direction such as in the scrolling direction (in FIG. 8, horizontally).

In another embodiment, the selection condition and the move condition are one and the same. In other words, once an item is selected it immediately is in a mode where it is moved freely (or possibly constrained in the scrolling direction) by the selecting stroke and whether a move actually occurs is determined by conditions found when the stroke ends (e.g., if the stroke ends at or near a valid target).

With regard to specific values for thresholds and conditions, the values may vary according to implementation details such as display size and resolution, input device, developer-set parameters, and so on. In one embodiment, one threshold may be computed from another threshold or both thresholds may be a ratio of a base value.

CONCLUSION

FIG. 9 shows a computing device for implementing embodiments described herein. The computing device may have a display 310, a processing component 311 including a processor 312, volatile storage (memory) 313, non-volatile storage 314, and one or more input devices 316. The input devices 316 may be a touch sensitive surface (possibly integrated with display 310), a mouse, a 3D-motion sensor (e.g., a camera), a pressure sensitive tablet surface, and so forth.

Embodiments and features discussed above can be realized in the form of information stored in the storage volatile and/or non-volatile computer or device readable media. This is deemed to include at least media such as optical storage (e.g., compact-disk read-only memory (CD-ROM)), magnetic media, flash read-only memory (ROM), or other means of physically digital information in a physical form (not to be interpreted as including energy or signals per se). The stored information can be in the form of machine executable instructions (e.g., compiled executable binary code), source code, bytecode, or any other information that can be used to enable or configure computing devices to perform the various embodiments discussed above. Again, this is also deemed to include at least volatile memory such as random-access memory (RAM) and/or virtual memory storing information such as central processing unit (CPU) instructions during execution of a program carrying out an embodiment, as well as non-volatile media storing information that allows a program or executable to be loaded and executed. The embodiments and features can be performed on any type of computing device, including portable devices, workstations, servers, mobile wireless devices, and so on. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of displaying a pannable surface, the method performed by a computing device comprising an input device and a display, the method comprising: displaying the surface on the display in a view area in which portions of the surface are displayed and panned, where the surface pans according to user input to cause the portions of the surface to be displayed and panned in the view area, the surface including a plurality of graphical items, where the user is able to select and rearrange the graphical items within the surface; receiving a stroke input inputted by the user from the input device, the stroke input associated with one of the graphical items at a position; determining that the stroke input, after some extension thereof, has satisfied a first threshold condition and in response causing: the graphical item to enter a selected state, the graphical item to start movement that is controlled by the stroke input, and a graphic indication of the selected state to begin being displayed; enabling, at least after the first threshold condition has occurred, a response to a determination of termination of the stroke input, the response comprising displaying the graphic item moving to the position and maintaining the selected state and the graphic indication after the graphic item has returned to the position, and after the stroke input has satisfied the first threshold condition, determining that the stroke input has satisfied the second threshold condition and in response enabling the same stroke input to move the graphical item or a graphic representation thereof.
 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the surface is pannable only in one dimension relative to the view area and the method further comprises allowing the stroke input to cause the graphical item to be selected only if the stroke is not substantially in the one dimension.
 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the surface is pannable only in one dimension relative to the view area and the method further comprises allowing the stroke to cause the graphical item to be selected only if the stroke is substantially perpendicular to the one dimension.
 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the surface is only allowed to be panned in one dimension relative to the view area, and the method further comprises constraining movement of the graphical item relative to the surface to a dimension perpendicular to the one dimension while the graphical item or the representation thereof is moved by the stroke input after satisfaction of the first threshold condition and prior to the stroke input satisfying the second threshold condition.
 5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the graphical object is allowed to be moved by the stroke input in arbitrary directions relative to the other graphical items only after the stroke input satisfies the second threshold condition, wherein the graphical object may be so moved by another stroke input that is concurrent with the stroke input and that pans the surface relative to the view area while the graphical item is remains positionable in the view area according to the first stroke input.
 6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the input device comprises a device that allows the user to provide input points in at least two dimensions, the stroke input corresponds to a sequence of the input points inputted by the input device, and the method further comprises monitoring the input points to determine whether the first threshold condition has been satisfied and to determine whether the second threshold condition has been satisfied.
 7. One or more computer-readable storage media not comprising a signal and storing information to enable a computing device, when operating, to perform a process, the process comprising: displaying a scrollable area on a display of the computing device, wherein during a given time period the scrollable area is allowed to be scrolled in only one dimension relative to the display, wherein the scrollable area comprises graphical objects that are selectable and repositionable by a user of the computing device, wherein the scrollable area comprises a plurality of slots that are fixed relative to the scrollable area, and wherein when the user finishes repositioning a graphical object the graphical object is automatically positioned in one of the slots; monitoring input strokes as they are being inputted by the user using the computing device, the input strokes substantially perpendicular to the one dimension, the monitoring such that: first of the input strokes that end before a first condition is satisfied select corresponding of the graphical objects without causing the graphical objects to change slots; second of the input strokes that end after the first condition is satisfied cause corresponding of the graphical objects to reposition by changing slots according to the second of the input strokes; and third of the input strokes that end after the first condition is satisfied and before the second condition is satisfied cause corresponding of the graphical objects to move during the third input strokes in accordance therewith, wherein, after the third input strokes end, the graphical objects moved thereby are not reordered relative to the graphical objects and remain in a selected state with corresponding graphics indicating same.
 8. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 7, wherein the first condition comprises a first distance and the first condition is satisfied by an input stroke when the input stroke reaches the first distance.
 9. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 7, wherein the monitoring is performed such that input strokes that end before a second condition is satisfied do not select any of the graphical objects and do not reposition any of the graphical objects.
 10. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 9, wherein the first condition comprises a first distance and the second condition comprises a second distance that is smaller than the first distance.
 11. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 7, wherein whether any given one of the input strokes does or does not reposition a target one of the graphical objects depends on a distance of the given one of the input strokes.
 12. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 7, further comprising allowing the graphical objects to be moved by the input strokes only in the direction substantially perpendicular to the one direction until the input strokes are determined to satisfy the first condition, after which the input strokes control movement of the graphical objects in arbitrary directions.
 13. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 12, wherein the input strokes are inputted using an input device that allows inputting two-dimensional data.
 14. A computing device comprising: a processor; a display; an input device; storage storing a user-scrollable surface comprised of user-selectable and user-moveable objects, the surface, when executed by the processor, allows a user of the computing device to scroll the surface with the input device in a first direction such that the display shows the objects scrolling on the display; and the processor monitoring strokes as they are being inputted with the input device, the strokes targeting the objects, wherein the monitoring maps a stroke targeting an object to a multi-stage gesture such that a first part of the stroke maps to a selection gesture that selects the object and a second stage of the stroke maps to a move gesture, and wherein strokes that map to the selection gesture and terminate before being mapped to the move gesture cause the object to enter a selected state after terminating.
 15. A computing device according to claim 14, wherein the first part of the stroke moves the object or a graphic representation thereof on a constrained path and the second part of the stroke moves the object or the graphic representation thereof without constraint.
 16. A computing device according to claim 15 wherein the first and second parts of the stroke comprise respective non-linear paths and the first part of the stroke slides the object or the graphic representation linearly in the direction.
 17. A computing device according to claim 16, wherein during the second part of the stroke the object or graphic representation thereof moves relative to the surface as another concurrent stroke pans the surface.
 18. A computing device according to claim 14, wherein the processor monitoring includes determining whether strokes, including the stroke, satisfy a condition, wherein when a first stroke targeting a first object is determined by the processor to end before satisfying the condition the first stroke selects the first object, and the first object has a same position on the surface both prior to the first stroke and after the first stroke.
 19. A computing device according to claim 18, wherein a second stroke targets a second object, the processor determines that the second stroke satisfies the condition before the second stroke ends, and the second object is repositioned on the surface according to an ending location of the second stroke. 